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Friday 31 July 2015

HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY AIRS ON TV

The documentary, Swaziland: Africa’s last Absolute Monarchy, which reports on human rights abuses in the kingdom is to be aired on national Danish television channel DR2 on Sunday 2 August 2015 at 11 pm, local time.

It was written and directed by Tom Heinemann and Produced by Borgen & Heinemann (2015).

The documentary, part of the series A Heart That Never Dies features Bheki Dlamini. 

A summary of the documentary released by the programme makers says, ‘Bheki Dlamini is a young, political activist from the tiny African country, Swaziland. He spent almost four years in imprisonment for something that he didn’t do. Shortly after his release he had to flee his country.’

This was because he wore a t-shirt demanding democracy and political reforms – which is considered an act of terrorism in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The programme makers say Bheki is just one out of many others that are harassed, tortured and jailed, including editors, lawyers and political opponents of the King’s regime.

Swaziland – Africa’s last absolute monarchy premièred in May 2015 in Copenhagen. It has been submitted to several film festivals, including the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival and Movies That Matter.

Bheki Dlamini is the President of the Swaziland Youth Congress, the youth wing of PUDEMO. He currently lives in exile at a secret location in South Africa. The Swazi police’s torture of him by way of “severe beatings and suffocation torture” was mentioned in Amnesty International’s 2011 Annual Report.

Tom Heinemann has won the Danish Outstanding Investigative Journalist of the year award twice, and has been runner up for Journalist of the year in Denmark three times. In 2007 he won the Prix Italia in the current affairs selection.

See also

DOCUMENTARY ON FREEDOM STRUGGLE

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